It also says Syria must give inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) unfettered access to them with the goal of removing them by the middle of next year.

The accord will be encapsulated in a United Nations resolution under Chapter VII of the UN charter which allows for use of force to ensure compliance.

In a statement, Mr Obama said a framework deal was an important, concrete step toward getting Syria's chemical weapons under international control so they can ultimately be destroyed.

US-Russian deal on Syria

The deal requires the complete destruction of chemical weapons in Syria by mid-2014.

Initial arms inspections in Syria are to be completed by November.

Chemical weapons production and mixing equipment must also be destroyed by November.

The deal mentions a hybrid approach to destroy weapons in Syria or remove them for destruction outside the country.

The US and Russia will work with the UN, OPCW and Syrian parties to achieve the goals.

Source: Joint Framework on Destruction of Syrian CW

"While we have made important progress, much more work remains to be done," he said.

The White House has been pushing for limited military strikes over an August 21 poison gas attack in Syria which Washington blames on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian government blames opposition rebels for the attack.

Mr Obama insisted that the US "remains prepared to act" should diplomatic efforts fail.

He said the US will continue working with Russia, the United Kingdom, France, the UN and others to "ensure that this process is verifiable, and that there are consequences should the Assad regime not comply with the framework agreed today."

"In part because of the credible threat of US military force, we now have the opportunity to achieve our objectives through diplomacy," he said.

"We have a duty to preserve a world free from the fear of chemical weapons for our children. Today marks an important step towards achieving this goal."

US forces remain positioned for possible military strikes on Syria.

"We haven't made any changes to our force posture to this point," Pentagon spokesman George Little said.

Although the UN resolution under which the new deal will be enforced allows for the use of force should Syria fail to meet the obligations of the plan, Damascus ally Russia is likely to oppose it once diplomacy shifts to the UN.

Mr Lavrov said of the agreement: "There [is] nothing said about the use of force and not about any automatic sanctions."

Syrian state media broadcast Mr Kerry and Mr Lavrov's press conference live, indicating that Damascus is satisfied with the deal.

Syria applies to join chemical weapons convention

With so many groups adding their names to those opposing the current regime, take a look at some of the most prominent.

Meanwhile, the UN says it has formally accepted Syria's application to join the chemical weapons convention.

Syria applied to join the convention on Thursday, which bans the production and stockpiling of chemical weapons and orders the destruction of existing stocks.

Syria's joining the convention and the related OPCW is a condition of the US-Russia plan to head off a western military strike.

UN lawyers asked Damascus for information before the application could be approved. UN spokeswoman Vannina Maestracci said the convention will enter into force for Syria on October 14, 30 days after the date of the formal acceptance.

Meanwhile, fighting on the ground in Syria continued unabated with rebel and regime forces engaged in a fierce battle for control of the ancient Christian town of Maalula, near Damascus.

While Britain, France and the OPCW welcomed the deal, the rebels fighting Mr Assad's regime greeted it with dismay, fearing it has scuppered any chance of Western intervention on their side.

"We cannot accept any part of this initiative," General Selim Idriss, the head of the Free Syrian Army, told reporters in Istanbul.

"Are we Syrians supposed to wait until mid-2014, to continue being killed every day, and to accept (the deal) just because the chemical arms will be destroyed in 2014?"

Proposal a 'model' for future: Butler

Former chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq in the 1990s and Australian diplomat, Professor Richard Butler, has backed the proposed plan for Syria to give up its chemical weapons arsenal, praising the agreement's detail.

He told ABC News 24 it forces Syria to declare its arms as well as maps out "the destruction of all chemical weapons and chemical labs" in the war-torn country.

"I was pretty astonished to read the agreement which they have done very carefully because quite honestly, it is a model for how these things ought to be done, politically, legally, and in technical terms," he said.

"It's going to be as hard as it gets, harder than it was in Iraq I suspect, because it's taking place in a country that's at war.

"Syria would be crazy if it doesn't try to make a credible declaration, but stranger things have happen. That's what we've got to watch."

However, Professor Butler says the deal does not eliminate the possibility of US strikes against Mr Assad's regime.

"This agreement they've done has in it an agreement between Russia and the United States that if this project starts to fail, then they will consider taking action under Chapter VII of the charter and what Chapter VII has in mind is actually military action," he said.

"This takes the whole issue of chemical weapons out of the hands of two big powers demonstrating their must queue part to each other.

"They have instead put this where it should be, right in the centre of the international structures and the law."

Professor Butler has also welcomed comments from Mr Ban expressing frustration at the UN's lack of action to address Syria's 30-month civil conflict.

"One of the fundamental anachronisms and failures in the current system is the present construct of the Security Council, who is and isn't members of it and the fact that these five big powers from World War II ... have veto power," he said.

Professor Butler says the world body's response to the Syrian conflict demonstrates reform is required.